Setup OpenSSH Server on Ubuntu Linux

by Lowell Heddings on September 17th, 2006

Setting up an SSH server on Ubuntu is about as simple as it gets. The server of choice is OpenSSH.

Run this command from a terminal window:

sudo apt-get install ssh

To test that it’s working, you can try to ssh into your own machine:

> ssh localhost

The authenticity of host ‘localhost (127.0.0.1)’ can’t be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 98:8a:b8:b2:9e:8a:84:e0:d4:08:27:fb:74:f0:de:d4.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?

Looks like it’s working! Naturally our ssh client doesn’t have the key for the server, since we just installed it. You can type yes to continue or just hit Ctrl-C to stop.

Lowell Heddings, better known online as the How-To Geek, spends all his free time bringing you fresh geekery on a daily basis. You can follow him on if you'd like.